Takks a Lot
Sigur Rós, who stunned locals with a quaking Austin Music Hall show in 2003, returned to the even grander Bass Concert Hall Sunday. The evening began with Amina, a Tosca-like string quartet that played wineglasses, music boxes, and what looked like multicolored hotel-desk courtesy bells, but not their conventional instruments. Their Icelandic sponsors, meanwhile, emerged like Pink Floyd from behind a giant scrim as Hopelandish interpreter and dove-like crier Jon Thor Birgisson (right) conjured Jimmy Page with the bow-across-the-guitar trick. Ninety epic, operatic minutes later, Birgisson dropped the title of the group’s latest album (“Takk” = “thanks”), down came the scrim once again, and out came the sole encore – almost splitting the hall in half.This article appears in March 3 • 2006.